Jac Jossa’s Costly Blunder

EastEnders star Jacqueline Jossa has been ordered to pay more than £1,400 and handed a criminal conviction after an overlooked speeding notice spiralled into a court case.

The 32-year-old actress, who plays Lauren Branning on the long-running BBC soap, was caught driving at 59mph in a 50mph zone on the A282 section of the Dartford Crossing on February 18. The incident occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m., when Jossa’s BMW was captured by a speed camera as she travelled with other traffic.

According to court documents, Essex Police issued a notice of intended prosecution on February 21, offering the star the chance to settle the matter by paying a fine or completing a speed awareness course. However, after she failed to respond, the case was escalated under the Single Justice Procedure — a streamlined process that allows minor offences to be dealt with on written evidence rather than in open court.

Jossa later told the court she had not realised the letter had been sitting unnoticed in her Billericay postbox. In her online plea, she explained:

“I was travelling with the traffic and failed to notice my speed had drifted up, while the limit dropped just before the tunnel.”

At Colchester Magistrates’ Court last week, she was fined £923 and ordered to pay £120 in court costs and a £369 victim surcharge, bringing the total to £1,412. She was also given three penalty points on her driving licence.

The actress expressed regret for the oversight, stressing it had been an honest mistake rather than deliberate neglect. Despite the conviction, Jossa remains one of EastEnders’ most recognisable faces. She first joined the show in 2010 as a teenager and returned to Albert Square in 2023 after a five-year hiatus.

Away from the soap, Jossa has carved out a busy career in entertainment, winning the nineteenth series of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2021. She is married to TV personality Dan Osborne, and the couple share two daughters. Her fans have praised her candidness, noting her ability to balance fame, family life, and the occasional public mishap with honesty and humour.